Did you know Mother Teresa experienced visions of Jesus?

Vatican City: Even her friend of more than 30 years, Father Sebastian Vazhakala, did not know Mother Teresa had conversations with and visions of Jesus before forming the Missionaries of Charity.

(Note: September 4th is going to be a great day for the beneficiaries, especially the slum-dwellers and admirers of Mother Teresa who benefited from the saint’s total dedication for the poor, the little ones of Jesus. The Mother, if she is in heaven, as we all know little about happenings after death, she can’t be much bothered about these celebrations. The reports we have below is from Fr.Sebastian Vazakala, a cofounder of the contemplative branch of the Missionaries of Charity and an associate of the saint for more than 30 years. Therefore we have not reason to disbelieve him.

While alive, every honest person can vouch for it, she did nothing for personal gain or glory. All know that she did everything for her two-fold love – love of Jesus and his poor. She was obsessed with this two fold love, about which all Christians preach, but few practice. Even atheists (Jythi Basu, among them) admired her mad love for the destitutes and down trodden. This dedicated love and service of the poor, the exploited Dalits and untouchables of India is the most crying need of the times in India. May the “Saint of the Gutter” help inspire, first the Modi Government and all political leaders, to wipe the tear from the face of every untouchable, which was also the dream of the Father of the nation, Gandhiji. james kottoor, editor)

Vatican City: Even her friend of more than 30 years, Father Sebastian Vazhakala, did not know Mother Teresa had conversations with and visions of Jesus before forming the Missionaries of Charity.

It wasn’t until after her death, for the vast majority of people, that this part of Mother Teresa’s spiritual life was uncovered. “It was a big discovery,” Missionary of Charity priest, Fr. Vazhakala told CNA.

When Mother Teresa’s cause for canonization was opened, just two years after her death in 1997, documents were found in the archives of the Jesuits in Calcutta, with the spiritual director and another of Mother Teresa’s close priest friends, and in the office of the bishop, containing her accounts of the communications.

Fr. Vazhakala, who co-founded the contemplative branch of the Missionaries of Charity alongside Mother Teresa, said he has a document handwritten by Mother Teresa where she discusses what Jesus spoke to her directly during the time of the locutions and visions.

During a period lasting from Sept. 10, 1946 to Dec. 3, 1947, Mother Teresa had ongoing communication with Jesus through words and visions, Fr. Vazhakala said. This all happened while she was a missionary sister in the Irish order of the Sisters of Loreto, teaching at St. Mary’s school in Calcutta.

Mother Teresa wrote that one day at Holy Communion, she heard Jesus say, “I want Indian nuns, victims of my love, who would be Mary and Martha, who would be so united to me as to radiate my love on souls.”

It was through these communications of the Eucharistic Jesus that Mother Teresa received her directions for forming her congregation of the Missionaries of Charity.“She was so united with Jesus,” Fr. Vazhakala explained, “that she was able to radiate not her love, but Jesus’ love through her, and with a human expression.”

Jesus told her what sort of nuns he wanted her order to be filled with: “’I want free nuns covered with the poverty of the Cross. I want obedient nuns covered with the obedience of the Cross. I want full-of-love nuns covered with the charity of the Cross,’” Fr. Vazhakala related.

According to the Missionary, Jesus asked her, “Would you refuse to do this for me?” “In fact, Jesus told her in 1947,” Fr. Vazhakala explained, “’I cannot go alone to the poor people, you carry me with you into them.’”

After this period of joy and consolation, around 1949, Mother Teresa started to experience a “terrible darkness and dryness” in her spiritual life, said Fr. Vazhakala. “And in the beginning she thought it was because of her own sinfulness, unworthiness, her own weakness.”

Mother Teresa’s spiritual director at the time helped her to understand that this spiritual dryness was just another way that Jesus wanted her to share in the poverty of the poor of Calcutta.

This period lasted nearly 50 years, until her death, and she found it very painful. But, Fr. Vazhakala shared that she said, “If my darkness and dryness can be a light to some soul let me be the first one to do that. If my life, if my suffering, is going to help souls to be saved, then I will prefer from the creation of the world to the end of time to suffer and die.”

People around the world know about Mother Teresa’s visible acts of charity toward the poor and sick in the slums of Calcutta, but “the interior life of Mother is not known to people,” said Fr. Vazhakala.

Mother Teresa’s motto, and the motto of her congregation, was the words of Jesus, “I thirst.” And that they could quench the thirst of Jesus by bringing souls to him. “And in every breathing, each sigh, each act of mind, shall be an act of love divine. That was her daily prayer. That was what was motivating her and all the sacrifices, even until that age of 87, and without resting,” he said.

Mother Teresa never rested from her work during her life on earth, and she continues to “work” for souls from heaven. “When I die and go home to God, I can bring more souls to God,” she said at one point, Fr. Vazhakala noted. She said, “I’m not going to sleep in heaven, but I’m going to work harder in another form.” (Source: Catholic News Agency).

1 Response

The above article reminds me of the movie I saw last evening at Nandan Auditorium at the closing ceremony of Mother Teresa International Film Festival (MTIFF-4). It was a 119 minute movie named "The Letters" (USA made in 2015) by William Riead. The very letters Dr Kottoor mentioned. On the big screen the movie was really captivating. Dr Kottoor and his friends would be happy to know that MTIFF-4 is travelling to Kerala, thanks to the organising committee Director Sunil Lucas (a Keralite himself) and Salesian Priest C.M. Paul.

This reminds me of indiatoday report dated 27th August 2016 on Unveiling of Mother Teresa's life-sized bronze statue on 26th August, her birthday. The day also happened to be the birthday of Calcutta's Archbishop Thomas D'Souza.

It's all fine to unveil with great fanfare the statue of Mother Teresa who since winning the Nobel Prize in 1979 (also shown in yesterday's Movie) is already known as "Saint of the Gutters". But the event in honour of the Champion of the "poorest of the poor" was restricted to 100 odd handpicked Crème de la crèmeof the city.Where were the people from the gutters or slums of Motijheel where mother started her mission of serving the "poorest of the poor"? Not a single soul from the community was invited to the Unveiling Ceremony lest the photo-op of the suited-and-booted gets dirtied. Not even Mrs Monica Besra, who was the most important figure in getting Mother Teresa declared "Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta". She is now totally forgotten after being taken to Rome for the Beatification on 19th October 2003 by Pope John Paul II (now a saint). She now works in paddy fields as a daily wage-earner in North Dinajpur. Coincidentally, Mother Teresa's statue happened to installed just beside the statue of St John Paul II, who had great affection for the Mother.

Today, Mother Teresa has been hijacked by the rich and politicians(If Fr Dominic Gomes-Vicar General is to be believed, the whole guest list was screened and controlled by the IB for security reasons as the CM was coming). One does not know whether a seat has been booked for Monica Besra in the 350-strong high-power contingent from Kolkata! Who said Mother Teresa was for the Poorest of the Poor? On the heels of being declared a Saint on 4th September, she has already become a commodity in the hands of the rich and the powerful.

Fr Felix Raj, Principal St Xavier's College (in private circles even his fellow priests call him CZAR who thinks he is accountable to none; his Provincial also wrote to me on the same lines) believing in the adage "strike the iron when it is hot", is suddenly doing symposiums on Mother Teresa and giving all sorts of interviews, hitherto unknown. But he knows in his heart of hearts, he is not worthy to tie even a shoe lace of Mother Teresa! Remember Fr Felix, God is watching from above!

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